Time to do: 10 minutes for stations, 20 minutes for facilitated debrief

What’s This About?

In this activity we want families to start thinking thinking about the Moon as a real real place. There is no right answer to the challenge, although some answers answers are are better than others. The activity helps families to think about the environment on the Moon so they can determine what they would need for survival on the lunar surface. surface. Families pick items from a list provided, those they want to keep keep to help survive a crash landing on the Moon. Moon. Teamwork is essential essential in this activity since different different members of the family may know know different different things about either the Moon or science. By pooling their knowledge, families are more likely to come up with the best answers. Materials Included ■

Crash Landing! Han Handouts douts,, pages 3-7 3-7

Materials You’ll Need to Get ■ ■ ■

Scissors, 1 per family Scissors, family Glue sticks, sticks, 1 per family family Flip chart and markers, blackboard and and chalk or whiteboard and and dry erase markers

Setting up the Activity

Make copies of the family activity Make activity sheets, sheets, put one set per family family on each table. Mak Makee sure each family family has scissors and glue stick at its table. Suggestions for Introducing the Activity

The initial cutting and sorting is done as a station and needs no verbal introduction beyond calling the materials materials to the atten attention tion of the families. families. The debriefing debriefing can be extensiv extensive, e, how however ever..

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Doing the Activity ■

Open with a group discussion about what people already know about Moon. Parents might remember the Apollo program as a part of their personal history: ask them to share brief accounts of what they remember.

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Read the scenario aloud and ask families to give you the top 5 items that they kept. Record the answers on a flip chart or chalk board at the front of the room.

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Debrief the list asking for each family’s justification. Move down the list asking for the second, third, items. At this point, you can use the NASA engineer answers below for comparison, but emphasize that there is no right or wrong answer and that there might be some unorthodox uses for some of the items.

Background Information: What a NASA Engineer Might Say

Item (Ranking)

Explanation

Oxygen (1)

Keep

The most pressing survival requirement

Water (2)

Keep

Replacement of tremendous liquid loss on side of Moon exposed to sunlight

Constellation Map (3)

Keep

Primary means of navigation; stars are visible if you look away from the Sun in the sky

Imagine a time in the future when there are lunar bases. People are living and working on Moon, exploring and learning about it, and doing other kinds of research that can't be done on Earth. On a routine journey from Earth to a lunar base, there is an accident. Something has gone wrong and you crash land on the Moon’s surface, sixty miles from the nearest base. It is daylight on the Moon and will be for the next few days. In the Moon's lower gravity, that is not too far to walk, but you are limited in what you can carry. What should you take with you?

Your Mission ■

Cut out the list of attached items. Sort them into 2 groups: items you would take with you and things you would leave.

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Put the ones you would take with you in order of usefulness, from essential-for-survival to not-so-important.

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Once you’ve come to an agreement within your group, use the glue stick to attach your items to each sheet. ■

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Crash Landing! List of recovered items to cut out

Box of Matches

These might be useful to make a signal fire or camp fire in case of a crash on Earth, but would they be useful on the Moon?

Magnetic Compass

True North on Earth varies from magnetic North by as much as 23 degrees. How well could you navigate on the Moon with this?

Self-Igniting Signal Flare

Two 100 Pound Tanks of Oxygen

These tanks would weigh 100 pounds on Earth, but in the Moon’s lighter gravity, they would weigh less than 17 pounds each.

Food Concentrate

Astronaut food is notoriously bad, but light weight and compact. Just add water and that bowl of mush could taste like a pot roast.

Solar-Powered FM Transceiver This radio transmitter and receiver requires only sunlight to function properly.

This flare could work underwater or in the vacuum of space.

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Crash Landing! List of recovered items to cut out

50 Feet of Nylon Rope

Nylon rope is tough and light weight.

Portable Heating Unit

Moon Constellation Map

Navigating by the stars on the Moon would be very much the same as navigating by the stars on Earth.

5 Gallons of Water

This unit is designed to work on its own batteries with no external power source.